Scottish Executive

Children's Hearings System

Alex Fergusson (Galloway and Upper Nithsdale) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how many children are subject to child protection orders in each region.

Euan Robson: This information is not centrally held. However, the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration have provided the following information for the month of May 2004. Child Protection Orders can last up to eight days and the number of children subject to an order can change on a daily basis.

  

Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration
No. of children subject to Child Protection Orders in May 2004


North
6


West
6


Central West
16


East
24


Scotland total
52

Civic Participation

Linda Fabiani (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to fulfil its commitment to participative democracy.

Tavish Scott: The Executive supports the principle of civic participation, and we are taking this commitment forward in a number of ways. Examples of specific activities include: providing support for the Scottish Civic Forum; promoting citizenship education in schools; supporting volunteering and the voluntary sector; promoting community engagement locally in Community Planning Partnerships and supporting grassroots capacity-building through the Community Learning and Development strategy. We are also providing increased opportunities for civic participation and stakeholder engagement in Executive policy-making processes and promoting good practice in our consultations.

  Civic participation complements a healthy representative democracy, and the measures contained in the Local Governance (Scotland) Bill will improve democratic participation and widen the range of people who can become involved in local government.

Civil Service

Mr Brian Monteith (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what costs for civil service redundancies it has made budgetary provision for in each of the next three years, in light of the ministerial statement on effective government on 24 June 2004.

Mr Andy Kerr: The budget for the staffing costs of the Scottish Executive in 2004-05 and 2005-06 does not include provision for redundancies. The budget for 2006-07 and 2007-08 will be set as part of the spending review process.

Drug and Alcohol Misuse

Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how many children under 16 were recommended by the Children’s Panel for detoxification and rehabilitation treatment as a result of (a) drug and (b) alcohol addiction but did not subsequently receive treatment in each of the last five years.

Hugh Henry: The Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration collects statistics on under 16s who are registered by the Reporter, under the Children (Scotland) Act 1995, where a child has allegedly misused alcohol or any drug. In 2003, 1907 children were registered by the Reporter, and 1,646 were referred by the Reporter for alleged misuse of drugs or alcohol. A child can be referred to the Reporter multiple times on the same grounds, so the number of referrals may be higher than the number of children referred.

  Figures on drug and alcohol misuse are not held separately, and information on numbers who did not receive treatment is not held centrally.

Drug and Alcohol Misuse

Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how many children under 16 who are resident in Scotland received detoxification and rehabilitation treatment outwith Scotland in each of the last five years.

Hugh Henry: Information on the number of under-16s who have received treatment outwith Scotland is not held centrally.

Drug and Alcohol Misuse

Donald Gorrie (Central Scotland) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to make better use of the facilities available at Castle Craig Hospital for residential treatment of alcohol or drug dependency.

Hugh Henry: It is for the members of local Drugs and Alcohol Action Teams to design and deliver services for people in their areas with drug and alcohol problems, and the Executive does not commission or fund individual services.

  Decisions on the most appropriate treatments for individuals are taken by local clinicians, taking account of the needs and circumstances of each patient. We therefore have no plans to promote the services provided at Castle Craig.

Education

Lord James Douglas-Hamilton (Lothians) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what specific targets it has set for schools since 1999.

Euan Robson: Since 1999, the Executive has set out national targets for schools in its Programme for Government documents Making it Work Together and Working Together for Scotland , its spending proposals Making a Difference for Scotland and Building a Better Scotland and its partnership agreement A Partnership for a Better Scotland .

  Specific performance measures have been developed, following extensive discussion with local authorities, to monitor and evaluate delivery of the National Priorities in Education through the School Improvement Framework, introduced under the Standards in Scotland’s School etc. Act 2000. Local authorities and schools publish an annual report on progress towards meeting targets and delivering the National Priorities in Education. The full set of performance measures and quality indicators can be found in The National Priorities in Education Performance Report 2003, available in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib. number 30161).

Education

Lord James Douglas-Hamilton (Lothians) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-8798 by Peter Peacock on 18 June 2004, whether the figures for gross local authority expenditure per pupil on secondary education in 2002-03 include capital expenditure.

Euan Robson: The figures for gross local authority revenue expenditure per pupil on secondary education in 2002-2003, in the answer to question S2W-8798 do not include capital expenditure.

  All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

  http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search..

Education

Lord James Douglas-Hamilton (Lothians) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what the capital education expenditure was per pupil in state (a) secondary schools and (b) primary schools in (i) 2002-03 and (ii) 2003-04.

Euan Robson: Information collected on capital expenditure is not broken down into primary or secondary education. However, the total capital expenditure figure for primary and secondary education in Scotland in 2002-03 was £143.6 million. Using school roll data from the September 2002 school census, this represents capital education expenditure per pupil of around £197. Figures are not yet available for 2003-04.

Education

Lord James Douglas-Hamilton (Lothians) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what the combined total local authority and Executive expenditure is per pupil in state primary schools for (a) each local authority area and (b) Scotland as a whole in the current financial year.

Euan Robson: Gross local authority revenue expenditure per pupil on primary education in 2002-03, the latest year for which figures are available, is given in the following table.

  Executive expenditure on education is generally channelled through local authorities and is therefore included in the figures in the table.

  

  

Local Authority
£ Per Pupil


Aberdeen City
3,284


Aberdeenshire
3,160


Angus
2,787


Argyll and Bute
3,710


Clackmannanshire
2,936


Dumfries and Galloway
2,786


Dundee City
3,087


East Ayrshire
2,832


East Dunbartonshire
2,980


East Lothian
3,250


East Renfrewshire
3,217


Edinburgh City
3,214


Eilean Siar
5,814


Falkirk
2,905


Fife
2,966


Glasgow City
3,216


Highland
3,444


Inverclyde
2,963


Midlothian
3,143


Moray
2,923


North Ayrshire
3,271


North Lanarkshire
3,160


Orkney
4,984


Perth and Kinross
3,385


Renfrewshire
3,016


Scottish Borders
3,116


Shetland
5,337


South Ayrshire
3,416


South Lanarkshire
2,896


Stirling
2,932


West Dunbartonshire
3,176


West Lothian
2,991


Scotland
3,148



  Source: LFR1 returns submitted to the Scottish Executive by Local Authorities and the Pupil Census September 2003.

Education

Margo MacDonald (Lothians) (Ind): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is satisfied that minimum area standards for the size of schools are being adhered to in all cases.

Euan Robson: The School Premises (General Requirements and Standards) (Scotland) Regulations 1967 set out broad minimum standards in relation to certain aspects of school accommodation, including areas of school sites and overall minimum educational area according to the roll for which a school is designed. We have no reason to believe that authorities are not meeting their responsibilities in this regard.

Education

Lord James Douglas-Hamilton (Lothians) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-8798 by Peter Peacock on 18 June 2004, whether the figures for gross local authority revenue expenditure per pupil on secondary education in 2002-03 include figures for additional sources of state funding available to schools, such as funds for IT projects and the promotion of sport and health.

Euan Robson: The figures for gross local authority revenue expenditure per pupil on secondary education in 2002-03 given in the answer to question S2W-8798 on 18 June 2004, represent expenditure, however financed, including additional state funding.

  All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

  http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search..

Environment

Chris Ballance (South of Scotland) (Green): To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of Scotland’s CO 2 emissions is accounted for by air travel.

Ross Finnie: Carbon dioxide emissions from aviation are not allocated to the constituent countries of the UK in the annually produced Greenhouse Gas Inventories for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland .

  The UK Greenhouse Gas Inventory, 1990 to 2002, prepared according to international guidelines, includes emissions from aviation. A copy is available on the National Environmental Technology Centre’s website at:

  http://www.naei.org.uk/reports.php.

Environment

Alex Johnstone (North East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how many tonnes of chlorofluorocarbons have been converted into inert substances in 2003 and what estimates, or targets, it has for 2004 and subsequent years.

Ross Finnie: Under EC Regulation No 2037/2000, used chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) must be recovered for destruction or for recycling or reclamation during the servicing and maintenance of equipment or before the dismantling or disposal of equipment. The obligation for reporting to the Commission the quantities of used CFCs recovered, recycled, reclaimed or destroyed in the UK rests with the UK Government and the Scottish Executive does not collect such information separately. There are no Scottish targets or estimates for 2004 or subsequent years.

Environment

Alex Johnstone (North East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what assessments it has made of the policy of replacing chlorofluorocarbons with hydrofluorocarbons in refrigeration and air-conditioning equipment and whether a ministerial statement will be made on this issue.

Ross Finnie: Unlike chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) have zero ozone depleting potential. In light of constraints introduced by the Montreal Protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer, HFCs have been promoted by industry and others as a suitable alternative to CFCs. However, HFCs are powerful greenhouse gases and emissions should not be allowed to go unchecked. HFC emissions in Scotland are quantified and reported in the annually produced Greenhouse Gas Inventories for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland . The main sources of emissions are aerosols and refrigeration.

  The Executive contributes to the UK climate change research programme, administered by Defra, which recently funded a project entitled Emissions and Projections of HFCs, PFCs and SF6 for the UK and Constituent Countries. This work includes estimates of future HFC emissions and assesses additional options for reducing future emissions of HFCs, including from refrigeration and air-conditioning equipment. A copy of the research findings can be accessed through the research pages of the Executive’s climate change website at:

  www.scotland.gov.uk/climatechange.

  No Ministerial statement is planned at this time.

Environment

Alex Johnstone (North East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what forecasts it has of the cost to (a) it and (b) local authorities of an effective containment programme of hydrofluorocarbons leakage.

Ross Finnie: The costs of containment are expected to fall largely on users. Assessment of additional costs associated with the implementation of the proposed EC Regulation on certain fluorinated gases, including enforcement, will be undertaken once EU deliberations on the proposal have moved towards a conclusion.

Fisheries

Alex Fergusson (Galloway and Upper Nithsdale) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it will take to monitor the effect and effectiveness of the exclusion zones covering Luce and Wigtown bays to be introduced under the Inshore Fishing (Prohibition of Fishing and Fishing Methods) (Scotland) Order 2004 (SSI 2004/276).

Ross Finnie: A length limit on vessels fishing with creels came into force on 5 July in Luce Bay and Wigtown Bay. The purpose of the restriction was to support those local fishing communities who are dependent on the stocks in the area. The Galloway Static Gear Fishermen’s Association provided information on landings, effort and fishing activity to assist the decision-making process, and we intend to continue working with local fishermen to monitor whether the restriction enables them to continue to make a sustainable return from the fishery. We also intend to continue working with nomadic fishermen to identify any displacement of effort elsewhere in Scottish waters arising from the new restriction.

Further and Higher Education

Karen Gillon (Clydesdale) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to encourage students from rural areas such as Clydesdale to access further education.

Mr Jim Wallace: The Scottish Further and Higher Education Funding Councils (SFEFC and SHEFC) have a range of measures in place to widen access to and participation in further and higher education for under-represented groups, including under-represented groups in rural areas. Four Scottish regional widening access forums, assist colleges and higher education institutions to work together to widen participation on a regional basis.

  As part of the SFEFC core funding methodology, there is additional funding available for those colleges for whom remoteness is an issue. The rates for 2004-05 are £198,535 per qualifying college and £31.85 per remote student at the qualifying colleges. This funding is provided in recognition of the additional operating costs for those, often small colleges, in remote and islands areas of Scotland.

  In terms of future steps SFEFC commissioned an area mapping exercise to look at patterns of supply and demand for further education in Scotland on a regional basis. This identified that participation rates at FE level in Lanarkshire are 24% below the national average and around 50% below the best performing areas. SFEFC has provided research funding to colleges in the area to examine why participation in Lanarkshire is at such levels, and is currently considering a proposal from the colleges for a project to enhance participation in the region.

Health

Stewart Stevenson (Banff and Buchan) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what action it intends to take with respect to people diagnosed with myasthenia gravis.

Mr Tom McCabe: The management of myasthenia gravis, and other chronic illnesses, is in general a matter for NHS boards to plan based on their assessment of local needs. The Executive would expect NHS boards to provide suitable services for people with myasthenia gravis, the symptoms of which can often be treated successfully. The treatment adopted in any individual case is a matter for clinical judgement.

Health

Stewart Stevenson (Banff and Buchan) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what support it will make available for people who are diagnosed with myasthenia gravis and their families.

Mr Tom McCabe: Support services for people with myasthenia gravis and other chronic illnesses, and for their families, are in general for NHS boards and local authority social services departments to plan, based on their assessments of local needs. The Executive takes the view that support services should be appropriate to the needs of patients and carers.

Health

Stewart Stevenson (Banff and Buchan) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to increase awareness about myasthenia gravis amongst the medical profession.

Mr Tom McCabe: General practitioners are expected to identify their own personal learning needs to better provide for the health needs of their patients and to seek training accordingly. Guidance and assistance is available to GPs from NHS Education for Scotland (NES) via the Postgraduate Directors of General Practice Education.

  Guidance and assistance on training programmes is also available to hospital doctors from NHS Education for Scotland (NES), via Postgraduate Deans and Tutors.

Housing

Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how the national registration scheme for private landlords will identify landlords who wish to avoid registration.

Ms Margaret Curran: As with existing licensing schemes, local authorities will use information from a variety of local sources to identify those who seek to evade the requirement to register. We will be working with local authorities to identify and disseminate good practice for ensuring maximum coverage of the registration scheme.

Housing

Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether local pilot studies will be carried out to assess the implications of the national registration scheme for private landlords on (a) rent levels, (b) supply of housing and (c) the cost of enforcement.

Ms Margaret Curran: We will introduce the registration scheme in the light of discussions with representatives of key interests including local authorities, landlord and agents. Those discussions will cover the manner in which the scheme is introduced, within the framework established by primary legislation.

Housing

Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether tenants would be committing an offence by continuing their contractual obligation to pay rent in circumstances where, under the national registration scheme for private landlords, a notice for no rent payable is placed on a landlord.

Ms Margaret Curran: When a notice that no rent is payable is served on a landlord within the registration scheme, the notice overrides the tenant’s contractual obligation to pay rent. However, if a tenant continues to make payments without that obligation to do so he or she will not be committing an offence.

Housing

Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how it will ensure that the national registration scheme for private landlords will not lead to a reduction of affordable rented properties, particularly in relation to landlords with less than three properties.

Ms Margaret Curran: The registration scheme should have a positive impact on the private rented sector by providing the key to engaging with the sector to encourage good standards, driving out unacceptable landlords and ensuring that the sector’s important role in providing for housing need is enhanced. We will design the details of the scheme in discussion with representatives of key interests to minimise the burden on acceptable landlords and we do not believe that the overall effect of registration will be a reduction in affordable renting by acceptable landlords.

Housing

Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether landlords of houses in multiple occupation will have to register twice in order to comply with the national registration scheme for private landlords.

Ms Margaret Curran: We will develop the detailed implementation of the registration scheme in discussion with representatives of key interests including local authorities, landlords and agents. One of the objectives of this exercise will be to avoid unnecessary duplication between the requirements of the registration scheme and those for houses of multiple occupation licensing.

Planning

Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what its position would be on the Cairngorms National Park authority’s prohibition on wind farm developments in circumstances where an application is made for wind farms of over 50 megawatts.

Mr Jim Wallace: The Electricity Act pre-dates the designation of the National Park Authorities and does not make specific reference to the National Park Authority having a role in respect of applications for consent under s.36 or 37 of the Act. Ministers recognise, however, the important role of National Park Authorities and would therefore take special note of any such objection.

Public Sector

Susan Deacon (Edinburgh East and Musselburgh) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what steps are being taken to support the effective sharing of data between different agencies.

Mr Tavish Scott: The Scottish Executive recognises that effective data sharing is an important factor in delivering more effective, customer focused public services - and in particular in improving child protection services. The need for public sector staff to understand when they can - and should - share data about their clients has perhaps never been greater.

  The Local Government in Scotland Act 2003 sets out the legislative basis for Community Planning. Statutory guidance, published in April, makes clear the importance of sharing appropriate information between partners and provides additional practical advice. That guidance will be supplemented by the work of the Senior Officer Group on Data Sharing which the Executive has set up

  The Senior Officer Group, which has representatives from across the Executive’s functions, promotes data sharing and oversees the development of strategic guidance. We have produced an internet-based framework that promotes a consistent approach to data sharing and will shortly publish general legal guidance that will help public sector bodies to ensure that they make effective use of information, share data within the law and respect people’s legitimate expectations about the privacy and confidentiality of their personal information. We are also developing further specific guidance, such as information sharing protocols, and are looking at the feasibility of running a short training programme targeted at key public sector staff with an interest in data sharing.

  We have also encouraged, through the Modernising Government Fund, data sharing programmes such as eCare, which is developing inter-agency systems to improve patient care and which, in its next phase, will focus on children’s services across all local authorities and NHS boards.

  The Executive is taking forward, with the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland, the recommendations in the Bichard report relating to the sharing and management of police information, and as part of that will examine the possibilities for sharing such information with police forces in other parts of the UK. The Executive will also shortly be issuing new guidance to managers and practitioners within the childcare community on the general question of information sharing, and the ability of agencies to collaborate in such sharing, in cases where there is any concern about a child.

  Data sharing guidance will be placed on the Internet at www.openscotland.gov.uk.

School Curriculum

Pauline McNeill (Glasgow Kelvin) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will ensure that classics continue to be taught in schools.

Euan Robson: In Scotland the curriculum is not statutory and responsibility for decisions on curriculum delivery rests with local authorities and headteachers. The Scottish Executive Education Department offers guidance and direction on the curriculum and the outcomes of education. Local authorities must be free to meet these outcomes in a way which best meets local needs in line with available resources. Decisions on whether to run any course depend on pupil uptake, timetable restrictions and staffing and other resources.

School Curriculum

Lord James Douglas-Hamilton (Lothians) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of children leave primary school in the state sector having attained the required level of competency in (a) arithmetic, (b) reading and (c) writing.

Euan Robson: The information requested can be found in Table 6 of the Statistical Publication Notice 5-14 Attainment in Publicly Funded Schools 2002/03 (by June 2003) published by the Scottish Executive on 9 December 2003. Most pupils are expected to attain at least Level D of the 5-14 attainment levels by the end of P7. Copies of the above publication are available in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib. number 30289).

School Curriculum

Lord James Douglas-Hamilton (Lothians) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of S2 pupils in state secondary schools reach the required standards in (a) mathematics, (b) English and (c) science.

Euan Robson: The information requested for (a) and (b) can be found in Table 8 of the Statistical Publication Notice 5-14 Attainment in Publicly Funded Schools 2002-03 (by June 2003) published by the Scottish Executive on 9 December 2003. Most pupils are expected to attain at least Level E of the 5-14 attainment levels by the end of S2. Copies of the above publication are available in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib. number: 30289).

  Information about the attainment of S2 pupils in science will be published in the 2003 Assessment of Achievement Programme Science survey report to be published in Autumn 2004.

Scottish Executive Departments

Stewart Stevenson (Banff and Buchan) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many cases of computer misuse there have been in each of its departments since 1999, broken down by category of misuse, and how many such cases resulted in disciplinary action.

Tavish Scott: Since 1999, there have been 166 recorded breaches of the Scottish Executive IT Code of Conduct in core departments. They are broken down by department as follows:

  

Corporate Services
23


Development
20


Education
14


Environment & Rural Affairs 
33


Enterprise Tourism & Lifelong Learning
26


Finance and Central Services
17


Health 
12


Justice
21


Total
166



  There is a range of disciplinary penalties which the Executive can impose depending upon the seriousness of the breach. A verbal warning was given in the majority of these cases. 68 resulted in more serious disciplinary action mainly in the form of a formal written warning.

Scottish Executive Finance

Christine Grahame (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether any external finance limits were overshot by public bodies within its responsibility in the last financial year and, if so, by which bodies and what action was taken in response.

Tavish Scott: External Finance Limits (EFL) apply to cash accounting and as the Scottish Executive has operated on a resource accounting system since 2002-03 they no longer apply.

  I am pleased to report that all of the non-departmental public bodies spent within their agreed final budgets. There are however, four health boards who are expected1 to exceed their Revenue Resource Limit:

  NHS Argyll and Clyde

  NHS Grampian

  NHS Lanarkshire

  NHS Western Isles

  NHS boards are clear that any such overspends are carried forward to the next year, and that we expect plans to eliminate them to be in place.

  The audited annual accounts for NHS boards are not yet available and the number of boards with deficits may change.

Water Industry Commissioner

Fergus Ewing (Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide a breakdown of the £140,000 referred to by the Minister for Environment and Rural Development as being the amount by which the Water Industry Commissioner exceeded his permitted expenditure for running his office and, in particular, whether that sum included any amount for the sum due to be paid to former employee, William Hetherington, in respect of his claim to an industrial tribunal.

Ross Finnie: The Water Industry Commissioner’s overspend occurred in 2003-04 and related largely to resourcing extra work on Scottish Water’s business planning and charging policies. Any payments due to employees or former employees in relation to the settlement of disputes between them would be met from the budget for the relevant year.